The new CD titled “10” has been completed and is now available for purchase and downloads so check it out! It’s the band’s 10th release and contains 10 brand new original songs. This release without question has the best songwriting and performances and the highest production value of anything the band has done. We think it’s a “10”. *********************************************************** AbsolutePowerPop.blogspot.com Review: The Fools-10. This is the tenth release for this Boston band (hence the title), and somehow I managed to miss out on the first nine. I'll have my ears out for #11, though, as 10 is a winner (if not a 10 itself) - it's excellent power pop in the vein of bands like Coronet Blue, The Nines and Third of Never. The driving "Time Will Not Erase Us" works as both a defiant stand by a veteran band and an anthemic rocker that even quotes Tom Petty's "The Waiting". "No Free Love" is a fine midtempo tune, and "Time Goes Slipping By" reminds me a bit of The Meadows. A nice find of a band that's been under the radar all these years. http://absolutepowerpop.blogspot.com/2008/04/monday-roundup.html (scroll down to third review) *********************************************************** Patriot Ledger Live Performance Review: The Fools are playing it straight, except when they’re not Music Review QUINCY — Aside from their satiric prowess, and often silly side trips into parody, The Fools were always a pretty talented and versatile rock band. That’s why they were such New England club icons during the 1980s and early ‘90s, and Saturday’s show at the Beachcomber in Quincy showed the Ipswich quintet is still a potent force. The Fools aren’t so much doing reunion shows as they are just continuing performing, but with less frequency than in their hectic heyday. The current lineup includes songwriter and vocalist Mike Girard, guitarists Rich Bartlett and Stacey Pedrick, bassist Lou Spagnola and drummer Leo Black. The Fools released their 10th album, cleverly titled “10,” last year, and performed several of its cuts in Saturday’s late set. The music on the latest album is in line with previous Fools outings, power pop with an edgy dance beat to most of the tunes, but there may be more “straight” songs than ever before. Which is to say, they’re not just going for laughs, but instead using Girard’s writing and vocal abilities to craft notable pop gems. Saturday’s late set split evenly between “serious” tunes and the usual Fools chicanery. It included both the side-splitting country music parody “Bigfoot Stole My Wife,” as well as perhaps the best straight cover of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” I’ve ever heard. Three songs from the last CD put the spotlight on The Fools’ songwriting chops Saturday. “(If It’s Our) Last Time” melded a power ballad to dance-rock rhythms for an invigorating result. “Million Miles” could have been an outtake from a classic Cars album, its visceral synth-pop a welcome blast from the ’80s. But the third song in the “10” trilogy was “Be All Right,” a searing mid-tempo rocker that suggested the Psychedelic Furs, with evocative, self-deprecating lines, and a chorus, “I’m doing the best that I can.” A light-hearted, winking look at love, or straight power pop? It worked either way. The Fools don’t just cover most songs, they re-interpret them in crazy ways. Usually, but not always. A take on Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” veered between tender folk and crushing heavy metal and was brilliant, goofy fun. But Lou Reed’s “Rock ’N’ Roll” was delivered straight down the middle, a pulsating rock classic done with unabashed verve. And Girard, who spends some of his spare time singing with BeatleJuice, displayed his oft-overlooked vocal mastery on Morrison’s “Mystic.” Of course there was plenty of the usual humor, from the Fools classic “Life Sucks” to the punky tale of gambling gone awry, “I Spent the Rent.” Girard adopted a mock basso-baritone voice for “Can’t Keep My Mind on You,” an ambivalent love song that advises the woman “you’re starting to bug me!” And that timeless ode to a special gal, “She Makes Me Feel Big,” is still touching and hilarious in equal parts. – Jay N. Miller For The Patriot Ledger April 21, 2008